Salon Radio: Glenn Greenwald and I discuss Obama and Rick Warren

I was still in my PJs at 6:30 AM when Glenn Greenwald called to talk about the Rick Warren mess. Thankfully, I wasn't too bleary-eyed after only five hours of sleep. We went over that topic as well as Prop 8 and race in a 20-minute podcast. A snippet of the intro by Glenn @ Salon:

Of all the preachers Obama could have selected to elevate and validate (and, in every sense, it was Obama's choice), Warren is one of the most destructive -- not only having been one of the most vocal supporters for Proposition 8, but also using the most inflammatory rhetoric on gay issues generally, expressing anti-abortion views in the most fanatical terms possible, and even sitting with Sean Hannity recently and urging the murder of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (making his prominent inclusion in Obama's inauguration -- as Atrios notes -- a rather odd step for a President who claims devotion to a diplomatic resolution with that country).

...Embracing someone like Warren is no more "inclusive" than inviting a White Supremacist or, for that matter, a Christian-hater to deliver the invocation. People like that espouse views that are shared by many Americans; why not include them, too, or have Pat Robertson deliver a nice prayer? Obama's "inclusiveness" mantra always seems to head only in one direction -- an excuse to scorn progressives and embrace the Right. Not even Bill Clinton's most extreme Dick-Morris-led "triangulation" tactics involved an attempt to court Jerry Falwell.

You can listen to the podcast here.